In The News

Islamic State Faces a Complex Web of Militant Groups and Violence in Pakistan

Samira Shackle May 4, 2015
The Islamic State terrorists have made no secret of plans to extend their so-called caliphate across Muslim nations beyond the Middle East, and their extreme ideology is attracting supporters throughout South Asia, including Pakistan. Pakistan has plenty of militant groups, including the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, with acts of violence taking place every day. The...

Rebalancing the Middle East

Emma Sky April 23, 2015
The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 empowered Iran as did the abrupt American departure in 2011. Since then the region has unraveled. Emma Sky, author and senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute, suggests that US regional policy narrowly focuses on three objectives: the defeat of the Islamic State, neutralization of other extremist groups and a nuclear agreement with Iran. Bilateral...

No Clear Winners or Losers in Yemen as Conflict Rages

Frank Gardner April 15, 2015
Little progress has been made in Saudi-led air campaign to remove Houthi rebels in control of western Yemen, the country’s most populated area. The Saudi goal is to “reverse the takeover of Yemen by rebels and restore the legitimate president, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, to power,” reports Frank Gardner for BBC News. The Houthi success “is due, not so much to any alleged support from Iran, but to the...

China Evacuates Citizens From Yemen

James T. Areddy April 1, 2015
With civil war expanding in Yemen, China quickly evacuated 600 people, most by a navy frigate. A few Chinese chose to remain in Yemen and China diverted missile frigates and a helicopter-equipped supply ship engaged in anti-piracy patrols along the African coast to the area, reports the Ministry of Defense. In a separate military matter, China reported that its air force completed its first drill...

Countering the Islamic State Scourge

Riaz Hassan March 19, 2015
The Islamic State terrorists have roots in Al Qaeda and a network of Sunni jihadi groups that coalesced in the midst of the Iraq War. “After being subjected to years of political and economic marginalization, state-sanctioned repression, lawlessness and corruption in the hands of Iraq’s Shia-led government, Sunni Iraqis rebelled by joining militant groups that pledged allegiance to ISIS,” writes...

4 Years in to the Syria Conflict, How Are We Handling the Biggest Humanitarian Crisis of Our Time?

Justin Forsyth March 18, 2015
The civil war in Syria has left more than 210,000 dead and 10 million displaced. “Aid agencies are running refugee camps, clinics and education programmes that reach millions of people,” writes Justin Forsyth, CEO of Save the Children for the New Statesman. “But the ability of the humanitarian system to reach everyone who needs assistance in Syria is in question. The war has exposed the cracks...

Divided Europe Mired in Crises

Chris Miller March 17, 2015
For a few short decades, Europe was viewed as a model for human rights and economic security. Many Europeans were eager for the continent to become an influential geopolitical actor, acting independently of the United States, notes Chris Miller, a Yale doctoral candidate and research associate at the Hoover Institution. But polarization within the Union and the institutional failure to address a...